This small nook is where I've been playing with toys since I was about 6 years old. Whenever I visit Gloucester up on the North Shore, it's the first place I go. Many of my favorite "rock ships" are still wedged (docked) in the cracks, even after all this time.

6.24.2014

The October Toys Skeleton Warriors Kickstarter has funded! Massive thanks to all of you that supported the project, and a sincere congratulations to George and Ayleen on the great news! It was really exciting to be part of the whole process, and we truly did learn a lot about what goes into running a Kickstarter campaign from the ground up.

We are definitely entering into a new dimension with how action figures are planned and produced, and this seems to be only the beginning. I imagine some extremely innovative spins on the Kickstarter model are going to spring up very soon, with entire toy lines featuring media content, playable games/apps and even vehicles on the horizon. It will be very interesting to see how the cycles between these KS produced figures change the way we all collect our stuff. Just imagine receiving in the mail an entire year's worth of a toy range, possibly even playsets -all at once! I have a feeling we're close, as a community, to experiencing something like this first hand.

Thanks again for bringing Skeleton Warriors back to life! -Matt

YES!! Thanks to everyone that supported, promoted, and helped make this project a success. We're so thankful to October Toys for getting us involved and allowing us to cross-pollinate our worlds, both physical and digital.As an extra bonus, a new player has been unlocked for The Duel in Dungeon Traveler! Good luck and have fun. Cheers! -Marc

6.21.2014

All the orders placed since the launch last Sunday night have shipped. Anything that was placed today will go out first thing Monday morning.

Thank you once again for making the return of the LSA a fun release!

We'll have a special post popping up shortly in regards to the October Toys Skeleton Warriors Kickstarter, spotlighting some more details about Skeleden. Just a few more days to go and the finish line is getting closer!

6.17.2014

This flash game is part of a new series we've been chipping away at for a while now, but it was October Toys' Skeleton Warriors project that really fueled the fire. The Glyventure series will travel across all parts of the Glyos System and beyond, and it seemed strangely appropriate to kick things off in a living space dungeon!

Matt and I almost never stop pulling inspiration from our pasts. Bits of Zelda, Pac Man, and Golden Axe certainly went into the mix this time, along with some new elements. Getting my brother JBo involved was great- we've been making music together our whole lives, but never created and scored an entire game like this. It's a trip to hear his distinct melodies while playing around with these characters. Arcade Rats have a lot more in store, so we hope you dig the new vibes.

Thanks again to all of you guys, the amazing community that keeps Glyos thriving! Special thanks also go out to George and Ayleen Gaspar for letting us rattle their bones!

Ok, 'nuff yak... GO HACK. After completing the Story Mode, try The Duel, a never ending arcade mode that we'll be expanding upon in the near future. Post your high scores here! Who should we unlock next?

6.16.2014

Thank you for a great rollout last night! We're very excited that the response on the LSA was positive, especially after cooking for such a long time in the production oven! Considering how many cool new things are currently out there, your continued dedication and interest in Glyos absolutely means the world to us.

With these mini releases, the risk is definitely greater, as it costs more to produce the detail lined/extra painted figures. That being said, it's been a ton of fun making them! I've been carrying around an LSA team in my pocket for the last few weeks and I still can't believe they are finally in production. In my mind, this current version of the LSA was resurrected by Elder Exellis to right the many wrongs that the original LSA had done. I look forward to hearing what you guys see them as, and really hope you enjoy them when they land in your hands.

Switching gears for a moment, Marcus and I have been working away on something special that's tied in to the current Skeleton Warriors Kickstarter, spotlighting Dungeon Traveler Skeleden. It takes things in an interesting new direction, with some classic AD&D vibes! Both Marcus and I are also super excited to welcome his twin brother, John Beaudette into the mix as the composer for all of the project's new music! John did a knock out job, and brings a fresh twist to the equation. Keep your eyes peeled for something to pop up here on the blog shortly.

Thank you once again for keeping the engine running! As we head towards our 7th anniversary next month, I keep reflecting on everything that's transpired over the years since we started, and I could not be more grateful for what we've been allowed to do.

6.15.2014

You may place ONE ORDER WITHIN THE FIRST HOUR tonight. We are seeing a high volume of traffic and need everyone's cooperation to make this as smooth as possible. After the initial dust settles, we will allow customers to place another order. Thanks for your understanding and support. Have fun!

Also note that past releases are still available over at the Buildstation.

This small wave has been something that I've dreamed about for many years. The colors are strange and the characters are odd, but these Sincroids mean a lot to us over here.

I could only ever dream of being able to play with an actual battalion of LSA, back when I was working on Rechlen and Aves almost a decade ago.

The paint work on these new LSA figures is some of the tightest to come out of our factory yet, and we even tried a few new things for these editions. Extra paint has been used in areas that we normally do not paint, such as the Standard LSA arms and thighs as well as the strange black heads on the Granthan Corps LSA. It took quite some time to finish up this order, and multiple revisions and tweaks happened all along the way. We'll delve more into that in the coming weeks.

Thank you for allowing us to finally put in this piece of our weirdo puzzle!

6.12.2014

Full production LSA will hit the store as a mini release this Sunday, June 15th at 9:30PM EST.

For the first time in our history, there is literally an army of Sincroids out in the barn! This figure now ranks up there as one of my all time personal favorite runs, and being able to finally assemble Elder Exellis in these Standard LSA colors has been surreal. The Sincroid/Elder Ex/Dark Traveler mold was created with this specific color scheme in mind.

There will definitely be a surprise on Sunday night as well, one that a few of you old school guys might find kind of interesting (remember the first Passcode?).

I know the timing is tight with all the intense Kickstarter action happening at the moment (who would have ever guessed that 4 action figure campaigns would happen at once!), but this round is more of a "soft" release, designed to directly add to the selection of "Standards" in the Buildstation. The production numbers are higher, as these figures are meant to stick around for a while.

More pics of the LSA and that renegade Skeleden will be popping up as we head into the weekend!

6.08.2014

All the small indents where you see a pin going through to secure a joint will be insert molded in full production, which means that those holes will not be visible. This is the same process that is used on the Four Horsemen's Power Lords, and yields a solid combination of functionality and finish.

I can't help thinking about the days of my youth when I look at this figure, playing Sega's Golden Axe at the Acton Bowladrome in between my blasted summer school classes. The face in particular reminds me of the massive skeleton on the Character Select Screen. The skeletons in the actual game were real mean enemies that drove me nuts, but man did I love playing round after round on that glorious cabinet.

So, in my weirdo mind, this Titan Skeleton is also kind of a neat little homage to one of my favorite games of all time.

These new skeletons are big, mean and a ton of fun to play around with. We'll be posting some more shots of this figure as the day goes on as well as address some scale questions that have been floating around. Old crackle bones up there is indeed substantial in size!

When you spend some time handling one of these "Titan" skeletons, it becomes clear that you're getting an excellent value for a figure this large and articulated.

The timeless iconography of a villainous skeleton is even more powerful in hand, with just the right amount of stylization mixed into the sculpting and design. This figure looks like the reanimated bones of a giant in comparison to a standard 3 3/4" figure, which adds a great twist to the play value. Bones of the Nephilim! Ha!

Those of you following the October Toys Skeleton Warriors Kickstarter may have had a look at another Kickstarter that is also currently underway, being presented by the fantastically talented Boss Fight Studio. Both the October Toys campaign and Boss Fight's campaign started on the same day (Monday) and actually share some similar thematic concepts, one being a basic Skeleton type warrior. The October Toys version, though scaled to play with standard 3 3/4" figures, is actually around 5" tall, representing a super charged and slightly mutated giant Skeleton Warrior. Boss Fight's proposed skeleton figure is designed to measure in at an actual 3 3/4", proportioned directly in size to a standard 3 3/4" human type body. Both figures conjure up memories of the classic Ray Harryhausen skeletons that many of us were crazy about when we were young (Creature Double Feature!). I love the idea of combining both companies skeletons into one undead mega army after the dust settles!

The fact that two fairly ambitious crowd funded action figure projects started on the same exact day is pretty wild, and I believe unprecedented in the history of Kickstarter. This really is a unique and exciting time to be an action figure collector and enthusiast.

As of this writing Boss Fight Studio has hit their goal and shows no signs of slowing down, so hopefully they will be able to unlock all of their planned stretch goals and get to their bone battalion!

The Skeleton Warriors project is 40% funded as I write this, so things are moving in the right direction! George, Ayleen, Marcus and I have some neat reveals on deck, and will continue to put all our collective effort into bringing Skeleton Warriors back to a life in plastic! Thank you to everyone who has contributed! It's fascinating to have a window seat for one of these things.

6.02.2014

Our great friends George and Ayleen Gaspar of October Toys have just launched an all new Kickstarter campaign for the classic 90's property, Skeleton Warriors! This resurrected rollout features 100% Glyos compatibility, but also employs the "Glybrid" insert molded traditional joint articulation that was pioneered with the Four Horsemen's fantastic Power Lords series.

Michelle, Marcus and I have been watching Kickstarter for some time now, observing the way it has changed the paradigm of how independent projects get funded. Our own operating systems are designed to allow for only a certain amount of tooling dollars per year, with no real wiggle room. There are negatives and positives to this approach, but it has proven pretty reliable for nearly 7 years, albeit sometimes frustrating. That being said, with the rising costs of manufacturing, I believe that using Kickstarter type funding programs will eventually (if not now) become the only way for a small business to make any significant progress in regards to new products actually seeing the light of day. This in conjunction with clubs, subscriptions and straight pre-orders will most likely be how the majority of direct to consumer collector based toy companies operate in the very near future, with very few exceptions.

The risk of rolling the dice on full runs without any kind of guaranteed commitment is becoming extremely risky, again due to the intense price increases overseas. My personal goal is to keep things open as far as Onell Design goes, following the path that we have been traveling since we started, with specific release nights, unannounced projects, surprise products and the like. However, the choices of how we run things here cannot be expected to work for our sister companies. You will be seeing more Glyos based Kickstarters this year, ranging from smaller projects to fairly large ones.

I personally hope you guys enjoy the expanding Glyos compatible universe, and continue to foster your own creativity and imagination as you travel through it!

Thank you to George and Ayleen for being truly open and honest with all the aspects of this project. We spent a lot of time working on the details together and it was always done with clear communication and a positive attitude.

We're also super excited to see another Traveler come to life, in the form of Skeleden. George and I each sculpted parts for this strange twist on the Traveler design, with George making all the best looking parts! He truly is a damn talented artist and was a blast to work with.

Marcus and I have some neat crossover posts coming this week, expanding a bit on who Skeleden is and his connections to the Skeleton Warriors universe. Skeleden represents a number of homages for me personally, and we'll explore some of them in the coming days.

Sega's classic video game Golden Axe is a major one of them.

Here's the full scoop on the project specifics from October Toys:

We are super excited to announce the launch of our latest project – Skeleton Warriors! We are redesigning and updating one of our favorite brands starting with the bad to the bone Baron Dark on Kickstarter now!These new, Glyos compatible action figures were designed with collectors in mind while drawing inspiration from both the 90′s Skeleton Warriors cartoon characters as well as original concept art provided by the awesome team at Goddard Film Group, LLC.There are three main figures you can pledge for on Kickstarter now including:Baron Dark• 5″ fully painted PVC action figure• 17 modular official Glyos compatible pieces• 26 points of articulation• Comes with removable sword, cape, loin cloth, and arm guards (for a total of 21 pieces)• Packaged in full color collectors window boxSkeleton• 5″ fully articulated unpainted PVC action figure• 17 modular official Glyos compatible pieces• 26 points of articulation• Available in bone and glow-in-the-darkTraveler Skeleden• 2.75″ PVC official Glyos action figure• 13 interchangeable parts• 12 points of articulation• New axe accessory (first melee weapon for Pheyden)• Exclusive version available exclusively through this Kickstarter!For more details, incentives, and stretch goals, please check out the project on Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/georgegaspar/skeleton-warriors-glyos-compatible-action-figures

6.01.2014

Grand Kabuto Master and authentic "Powered Mustache" Marty "The Godbeast" Hansen has an all new wave of Kabuto Mushi MK II colors for release tonight, June 1st, at 8 PM CST over in his store.

Once again Marty's eye for color has resulted in a some great color combinations, focusing on the first tinted translucent editions of Kabuto Mushi. Familiar hues such as Infection Clear Red, Neo Phase Clear Green, Mordireus Clear Pink and good old Smoke Clear Gray will all be available for the first time on the fan favorite Mushi. To spice things up, Marty is offering some PVC color swaps in the mix, with the "Watermelon Twins" taking center stage in their robust pink and green final forms.

The Glyaxia colors also return for a fresh run across another of the extended Glyos family molds! It's been a lot of fun playing with the two figures shown above (and in recent posts). The samples luckily arrived right before I had to break down Block Base, so the twin Kabuto Clones managed to just sneak into the mix.

As we were planning these latest assortments together, Marty and I discussed a story arc that involved Glyaxia Command snatching some Kabuto Mushi specimens, with the intention of cloning them aboard Block Base. I actually play out all these stories like some overgrown goof, and having the base still intact to greet the latest KM assortment was really fun!

The crew over here wishes you luck tonight Marty, congratulations on another wave of Kabuto action!